‘Seeing what it means to the survivors is beyond anything I could ever write in a history book’

Speaking to the JC, Williams, who has devoted the last decade to researching the Kindertransport, says: “This was the most important part of the work… As soon as I found the lists, I knew that the first thing to do was to reunite the Kinder with them.

“Their eyes lit up, they were so shocked, they were just astonished. Seeing what it means to the survivors is beyond anything I could write in a history book. Having that moment face-to-face with them as you tell them about their journeys, then they tell you all their information, and then I’m able to confirm all this because of the documents is an experience every academic should dream about. You learn more in those moments than at any other time.”

Kurt Marx in a photo taken around the time he escaped Germany on the Kindertransport (Photo: myvoice.org.uk)[Missing Credit]

She gives an example, describing how Kindertransport refugee Kurt Marx “remembered that 89 was in his Kindertransport number. I was able to tell him that his Kindertransport number was 2489. But he had remembered the end numbers for some 87 years.”

Kurt Marx BEM celebrating his third bar mitzvah at Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue in September, aged 100[Missing Credit]

Indeed, her work has filled in gaps in the histories of countless families. “I’ve been able to reunite Kinder who were on the same transport. I’ve been able to connect second generation [descendants] with Kinder who were on their parent’s transport, and the Kinder were able to give more information to the second generation, whose parents did not speak [about it] or had few memories of the actual journey.”

“So many third generation have been emailing me, asking to know more about their grandparents’ stories,” she continued. And her discoveries are also of practical use to the descendants of Kinder, enabling them to reclaim citizenship in Europe.

Her work is also allowing for long overdue commemoration of children who were expelled from Nazi-occupied Europe, collaborating with the Stolpersteine project to “breathe the names of the victims back into the streets in which they used to live”, Williams said.

Williams, who is not Jewish and whose grandfather served on the Europa, a boat which brought Kinder to the UK, also told the JC about the trying circumstances surrounding her four-month stint at Yad Vashem earlier this year while Israel was still at war.

“I was telling families in Israel about their relative’s files as we were sitting in bomb shelters. I would be up at 2am because of a missile and then leave for work at 7am. My grandma used to tell me about how she used to be in the air raid shelter during the Second World War and then go to work. I now understand this a lot more.”

Williams has found out plenty more in the last couple of months since taking up a position as Kindertransport scholar in residence at the Association for Jewish Refugees.

Jewish Kindertransport refugees from Germany and Austria, at a camp in Dovercourt Bay near Harwich, 11th January 1939 (Image: Getty)Getty Images

These new breakthroughs include details of the languages spoken by the Kinder, their birthplaces and their religion – which was primarily Jewish, but some children came from Christian families defined as Jewish under the Nuremberg race laws.

Williams revealed her new findings at a speaker event this month, organised by the National Holocaust Museum, which has an immersive exhibition on the experience of being on the Kindertransport – The Journey. The event also included a talk from John Fieldsend, who took one of the trains over 85 years ago, organised by the late Sir Nicholas Winton.

Prof. Maiken Umbach, who chaired the talk, told the JC that Fieldsend told her he would “love to work more with Amy because there are still puzzle pieces missing in the story, and that he would love to go to the archives with her and find more information. I think that’s a lovely dimension of the research.”

Williams’s focus is still squarely on illuminating the stories of the Kindertransport, which she is being helped to do by AJR’s existing network of Kinder and their relatives.

About her new role, she told us that it is “a dream position”, primarily because she works “directly with the membership who are Kinder and their families”.

“I’m excited about our future projects from exhibitions, to memorials, to a new Kindertransport database,” she continued. “For the first time, we’ll be able to see archival material from around the world on one platform for all the families to finally learn about their stories.”

Michael Newman OBE, CEO of AJR, said: “Dr Williams brings exceptional scholarly rigour and creative vision to this important role. Her appointment signals our commitment to preserving the legacy of the Kinder and honouring their remarkable journeys and contributions.”

Williams said the AJR was “facilitating research which will rethink the Kindertransport. They have been incredibly supportive of all my ideas… and I hope that I am doing them proud.”

Judging by the reactions to her work so far, there is little doubt that she is.